Rhesus-minus phenotype as a predictor of sexual desire and behavior, wellbeing, mental health, and fecundity

The results showed that the Rh-negative women, but not men, scored worse in wellbeing measured with the WHO-BREFF. The Rh-negative men scored worse in mental health-related variables and in their reported economic situation and the Rh-negative women scored better in physical health-related variables. Both the Rh-negative men and women reported higher sexual activity than their Rh-positive peers.

The effects of the Rh phenotype were significant after the correction for multiple tests. However, they were usually weaker and less numerous than those of smoking, consuming alcohol, and high body mass index, which were used as a sort of internal control.

The present study performed on a self-selected internet population had shown that the Rh-negative subjects report worse quality of life than the Rh-positive subjects. It also has been confirmed that they had worse mental health (men), better physical health (women), and worse economic situations. Rh-negative subjects also reported higher sexual activity than the Rh-positive subjects. The effects of Rh-negativity were less numerous and weaker than the effects of smoking, alcohol consumption, and high BMI. In fact, the partial Tau 2.4–3.6 correspond to Cohen f 3.8–5.7, which fall within a range of small (but not negligible) effects according to the Cohen classification [34]. It must be remembered, however, that total number of Rh-negative subjects in the human population is large and that Rh-negative subjects stay affected by they Rh negativity permanently. Therefore, if the effects observed in our sample are present in the general population, their total impact on public health could be larger than that of some formally stronger effects, such as the impact of alcohol consumption.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0236134